So this first blog is a bit late. A couple of months late in fact. Reasons for this are one or all of the following:
a) I'm lazy -clearly not when you see the job we've undertaken.
b) I haven't had the time - I have a real job too you know.
c) First day on the job I hit all two of my typing fingers with the hammer and have just recovered. - no comment.
Anyhow, here we go.
As of today, we are incredibly close to finishing the demolition part of the job. That should actually be written "..the DEMOLITION part of the job" because it is so much fun. We've had the house for about two months, but were held back by about five weeks by a particularly nasty building material from the old days, let's call it Voldemort. A bit of old Voldemort was found during the inspection, but the sellers promptly called in a wizard and disappeared him. But he came back, as the bad guys always do, and it turned out he was residing in small quantities all over the house. We have finally, after the second sequel, sent him to the Deathly Hallows and the Captain's house is good to go.
Since then, we spent a lot of time, with some excellent help on occasion, removing heavy plaster walls, ceilings, insulation, cabinets, floors and just about everything else (I'll leave out the joke about the kitchen sink) and filled a 30 yard dumpster.
It's been a month of hard work on evenings and on weekends, unexpected discoveries and not one but two mealtime noodle fiascos. Only two small injuries and a mild electrocution (none were noodle-related). I think that's pretty good.
We've finally figured out how to get a good-sized kitchen and a door to the backyard, so right now I'm all about framing the door and moving the window. Just the kind of thing I am only partially sure how to do. But every time it comes up in conversation, I just speak about it with confidence and use words like "jackstud", "cripple" and "rough opening" and my wife seems to believe in me.
Same goes for the other big tasks, each area has a language. If you know the words, but not really what they mean, most people will think you're an expert.
That's enough for now, just to bring you up to speed. I've left out a lot for brevity (?) but maybe some details can come out in future posts.
G
**All future movie references will only deal with Star Wars. I couldn't do that here because:
a) I wasn't the person who identified Voldemort for what he was and;
b) If I found Darth Vader, Darth Maul or any other Sith Lord in my house, I wouldn't kick them out.
a) I'm lazy -clearly not when you see the job we've undertaken.
b) I haven't had the time - I have a real job too you know.
c) First day on the job I hit all two of my typing fingers with the hammer and have just recovered. - no comment.
Anyhow, here we go.
As of today, we are incredibly close to finishing the demolition part of the job. That should actually be written "..the DEMOLITION part of the job" because it is so much fun. We've had the house for about two months, but were held back by about five weeks by a particularly nasty building material from the old days, let's call it Voldemort. A bit of old Voldemort was found during the inspection, but the sellers promptly called in a wizard and disappeared him. But he came back, as the bad guys always do, and it turned out he was residing in small quantities all over the house. We have finally, after the second sequel, sent him to the Deathly Hallows and the Captain's house is good to go.
Since then, we spent a lot of time, with some excellent help on occasion, removing heavy plaster walls, ceilings, insulation, cabinets, floors and just about everything else (I'll leave out the joke about the kitchen sink) and filled a 30 yard dumpster.
It's been a month of hard work on evenings and on weekends, unexpected discoveries and not one but two mealtime noodle fiascos. Only two small injuries and a mild electrocution (none were noodle-related). I think that's pretty good.
We've finally figured out how to get a good-sized kitchen and a door to the backyard, so right now I'm all about framing the door and moving the window. Just the kind of thing I am only partially sure how to do. But every time it comes up in conversation, I just speak about it with confidence and use words like "jackstud", "cripple" and "rough opening" and my wife seems to believe in me.
Same goes for the other big tasks, each area has a language. If you know the words, but not really what they mean, most people will think you're an expert.
That's enough for now, just to bring you up to speed. I've left out a lot for brevity (?) but maybe some details can come out in future posts.
G
**All future movie references will only deal with Star Wars. I couldn't do that here because:
a) I wasn't the person who identified Voldemort for what he was and;
b) If I found Darth Vader, Darth Maul or any other Sith Lord in my house, I wouldn't kick them out.